The WPA & the Golden Age · Reading & the Stage
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Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, 1941
What it is
The Library of Congress dates this silkscreen only to a range, between 1936 and 1941, with a verso date stamp of January 24, 1941.
Why it matters
A graduate's mortarboard and a pair of eyeglasses are superimposed over a globe, reducing the whole argument for public libraries to three flat, hand-cut shapes. It is a print on board, screened in solid colour blocks with no halftone - the economical WPA poster method that let one artist pull a few hundred copies by hand.
What to notice
A mortarboard and a pair of spectacles float over the globe - the WPA's pitch that a library card is a passport.
Made by artists on the public payroll — art the country already owned.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- One-sheet
- Poster published
- Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, 1941
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · 98508155
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
